Securing MySQL: step-by-step

Machine Translations

1. Introduction

MySQL is one of the most popular databases on the Internet and it is often used in conjunction with PHP. Besides its undoubted advantages such as easy of use and relatively high performance, MySQL offers simple but very effective security mechanisms. Unfortunately, the default installation of MySQL, and in particular the empty root password and the potential vulnerability to buffer overflow attacks, makes the database an easy target for attacks.

This article describes the basic steps which should be performed in order to secure a MySQL database against both local and remote attacks. This is the third and last of the series of articles devoted to securing Apache, PHP and MySQL.

1.1 Functionality

The article assumes that the Apache web server with the PHP module is installed in accordance with the previous articles, and is placed in the /chroot/httpd directory.

Apart from the above we assume the following:

The MySQL database will be used only by PHP applications, installed on the same host;

The default administrative tools, such as mysqladmin, mysql, mysqldump etc. will be used to manage the database;

Remote data backup will be performed by utilizing the SSH protocol.

1.2 Security requirements

In order to achieve the highest possible level of security, the installation and configuration of MySQL should be performed in accordance with the following security requirements:

MySQL database must be executed in a chrooted environment;

MySQL processes must run under a unique UID/GID that is not used by any other system process;

Only local access to MySQL will be allowed;

MySQL root's account must be protected by a hard to guess password;

The administrator's account will be renamed;

Anonymous access to the database (by using the nobody account) must be disabled;

All sample databases and tables must be removed.

2. Installing MySQL

Before we start securing MySQL, we must install the software on the server. As in the previous articles, we will start installation by creating a unique, regular group and user account on the operating system, which will be dedicated to the MySQL database:

In general, the process of installing the server is almost identical to the one described in the MySQL manual. The only change is the use of a few additional parameters, specified in the ./configure line. The most important difference is the use of --with-mysqld-ldflags=-all-static parameter, which causes the MySQL server to be linked statically. This will significantly simplify the process of chrooting the server, as described in Section 3. With regard to the other parameters, they instruct the make program to install the software in the /usr/local/mysql directory, run the MySQL daemon with the privileges of the mysql account, and create the mysql.sock socket in the /tmp directory.

2.2 Copy configuration file

After executing the above commands, we must copy the default configuration file in accordance with the expected size of the database (small, medium, large, huge). For example:

Once the connection is successfully established, we can shutdown the database:

/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqladmin -u root shutdown

and start securing the software. Otherwise, we should analyze the information stored in the /usr/local/mysql/var/`hostname`.err log file, and eliminate the cause of any problems.

3. Chrooting the server

The first step of securing MySQL is to prepare the chrooted environment, in which the MySQL server will run. The chrooting technique was described in detail in the first article of this series ("Securing Apache: Step-by-Step"), so if you are not familiar with the technique or why chrooting is recommended, please refer to that article.

3.1 Operating system

Like in the previous articles, the target operating system is FreeBSD 4.7. However, the methods presented should also apply on most modern UNIX and UNIX-like systems.

3.2 Prepare chroot environment

In order to prepare the chrooted environment, we must create the following directory structure:

3.5 Tighten passwords and groups

From the files: /chroot/mysql/etc/passwords and /chroot/mysql/etc/group we must remove all the lines except the mysql account and group. Next, we have to build the password database as follows (this applies only to FreeBSD):

3.7 Localization

If any language other than English will be used, we should copy the proper charsets from the /usr/local/mysql/share/mysql/charsets directory as well.

3.8 Test the configuration

At this point MySQL is ready to run in the chrooted environment. We can test if it runs correctly by executing the following command:

chrootuid /chroot/mysql mysql /usr/local/mysql/libexec/mysqld &

If any error occurs, we should use the truss command or an alternative, such as ktrace/kdump, strace, etc. This will help us to determine and eliminate the cause of the problems.

Notice, that in order to run the mysqld process, the chrootuid program was used instead of chroot, as in case of Apache or PHP. The main difference is that chrootuid changes the owner of the executing process. In our example, mysqld is being executed in a chrooted environment, but the owner of the process is not root, but mysql user. The chrootuid is not installed by default in many operating systems and it may be necessary to download and install this program manually. The chrootuid software can be downloaded here.

4. Configuring the server

The next step is to configure the database server in compliance with our security requirements.

In case of default installation of MySQL, the main configuration file is /etc/my.cnf. In our case, however, because of running the server in a chrooted environment, we will use two configuration files: /chroot/mysql/etc/my.cnf and /etc/my.cnf. The first one will be used by MySQL server, and the latter will be used by MySQL tools (e.g. mysqladmin, mysql, mysqldump etc.). In both cases, some configuration changes will be required.

4.1 Disable remote access

The first change applies to the 3306/tcp port, on which MySQL listens by default. Because, according to the initial assumptions, the database will be used only by locally installed PHP applications, we can freely disable listening on that port. This will limit possibilities of attacking the MySQL database by direct TCP/IP connections from other hosts. Local communication will be still possible throw the mysql.sock socket. In order to disable listening on the mentioned port, the following parameter should be added to the [mysqld] section of /chroot/mysql/etc/my.cnf:

skip-networking

If, for some reason, remote access to the database is still required (e.g. to perform remote data backup), the SSH protocol can be used as follows:

4.2 Improve local security

The next change is to disable the use of LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE command, which will help to prevent against unauthorized reading from local files. This matters especially when new SQL Injection vulnerabilities in PHP applications are found.

For that purpose, the following parameter should be added in the [mysqld] section in /chroot/mysql/etc/my.cnf:

set-variable=local-infile=0

In addition, to make the use of the database administrative tools convenient, the following parameter should be changed in the [client] section of /etc/my.cnf:

socket = /chroot/mysql/tmp/mysql.sock

Thanks to that, there will be no need to supply the mysql, mysqladmin, mysqldump etc. commands with the --socket=/chroot/mysql/tmp/mysql.sock parameter every time we run these tools.

4.3 Change admin password

One of the most important steps in securing MySQL is changing the database administrator's password, which is empty by default. In order to perform that, we should run MySQL (if it is not already running):

It is good practice not to change passwords from the command line, for example, by using the "mysqladmin password" command. This is especially important when other users work on the server. In that case the password could be easily revealed, e.g. by using the "ps aux" command or reviewing history files (~/.history, ~/.bash_history etc), when improper access rights are set to them.

4.4 Remove default users/db

Next, we must remove the sample database (test) and all accounts except the local root account:

This will prevent the database from establishing anonymous connections and -- irrespective of the skip-networking parameter in /chroot/mysql/etc/my.cnf -- remote connections as well.

4.5 Change admin name

It is also recommended to change the default name of administrator's account (root), to a different, harder to guess one. Such a change will make it difficult to perform brute-force and dictionary attacks on the administrator's password. In this case the intruder will have to guess not only the password, but first and foremost, the name of the administrator's account.

4.6 Remove history

Finally, we should also remove the content of the MySQL history file (~/.mysql_history), in which all executed SQL commands are being stored (especially passwords, which are stored as plain text):

cat /dev/null > ~/.mysql_history

5. Communication between PHP and MySQL

In the previous article ("Securing PHP: Step-by-Step"), I mentioned about the communication problem between PHP and MySQL when one of these programs is being executed in a chrooted environment. Because locally PHP communicates with MySQL by using the /tmp/mysql.sock socket, placing PHP in the chrooted environment means that they cannot communicate with each other. To solve that problem, each time we run MySQL we must create hard link to the PHP chrooted environment:

ln /chroot/mysql/tmp/mysql.sock /chroot/httpd/tmp/

Note that the /chroot/mysql/tmp/mysql.sock socket and the /chroot/httpd/tmp directory must be physically placed on the same filesystem. Otherwise the programs will not be able to communicate with each other -- hard links do not work between filesystems.

6. Final steps

At this point we can create all databases and accounts which will be used by specific PHP applications. It should be emphasized that these accounts should have access rights only to the databases which are used by the PHP applications. In particular, they should not have any access rights to the mysql database, nor any system or administrative privileges (FILE, GRANT, ALTER, SHOW DATABASE, RELOAD, SHUTDOWN, PROCESS, SUPER etc.).

At last, we should also create a shell script that will be used to run MySQL during operating system start up. Sample script is shown below and also available for download:

In case of our FreeBSD system, the above script should be placed in the /usr/local/etc/rc.d directory, under the name of mysql.sh.

6.1 Summary

Applying the methods described in the article allows us to significantly increase the security of MySQL. By running the database in a chrooted environment, disabling listening on 3306/tcp port and applying strong passwords to users' accounts we can make the database immune to a many of the attacks that would be possible with the default installation.

Although no method will let us achieve 100% security, applying the outlined methods will at least limit attack possibilities from users who visit our web servers with unfair intentions.

Artur Maj works as a Principal Software Engineer for Oracle Corporation, in the EMEA Mobile, Wireless & Voice Center of Expertise. He is experienced in designing computer systems, performing security audits as well as providing security training. He is also author of many articles and publications devoted to securing computer systems and software against intruders.